Before the Western Michigan hockey team takes the ice for practice, coach Andy Murray shows his players recent goals involving former Broncos in the NHL.

Lately, they’ve been seeing a lot of someone who hadn’t been getting much love in those review sessions before: Blackhawks defenseman Jordan Oesterle.

“It’s been fun,” said Murray, who coached Oesterle for three seasons. “More important to it, his goals have been great. The pass he made to [Patrick] Kane on the breakaway off the bench in the one, not a lot of players can make that play. We’re just enjoying following him and following all of his highlights. Our program takes a great deal of pride when our guys have success like that. We’re really excited and happy for him. I would like to be showing more of his highlights the rest of the year.”

Oesterle has come a long way since he walked into Lawson Arena at Western Michigan as a freshman in 2011. The NHL wasn’t a thought back then. He had already been bypassed in two drafts.

Oesterle was raw and undersized, but he had skills the Western Michigan coaches knew they could put to use. Rob Facca was on Western Michigan’s coaching staff at the time and helped recruit Oesterle, a Michigan native. Facca, who is now a Blackhawks amateur scout, recalled quickly noticing Oesterle because of his skating.

“He was an easy player to find, easy player to watch,” Facca said. “He had excellent feet, played with pace and tempo, was good at getting pucks up ice. He was a young guy in the USHL, which is a hard league for a young player. He adapted really well and didn't look out of place.

“I think he was behind the curve as far as the draft goes size-wise and strength-wise and probably hockey maturity. I think when he got to Western our defensive coach Pat Ferschweiler, who is an assistant with the Red Wings, and Andy both thought that he had a chance to become a good pro.”

Oesterle didn’t see that then. He just remembers being in over his head coming into college. He can now admit he probably wasn’t ready for college hockey at that point. He certainly wasn’t ready for Murray.

Murray took over the Western Michigan program just as Oesterle arrived. Murray had never coached a Division I team, spending most of his career in pro hockey, with stints as the head coach of the Los Angeles Kings and St. Louis Blues.

Murray wasn’t going to adapt for a college hockey team. It was going to adapt to him.

“We run our team like an NHL team because it’s all I know,” Murray said. “Everything we do is like an NHL team. We practice in the morning. We go to school in the afternoon. We changed that time frame. We changed our nutritional program, travel operation. Everything I do is what I knew from 20 years in the NHL. I think our players have an advantage because it’s a professional environment here. Our systems we play and what we do here we try to run it as a pro team. Our goal is we want guys who don’t want to be college players, but they want to professional players.”

Oesterle wasn’t prepared for that. He shipped up, though. It was that or ship out. He calls Murray the most influential coach of his career.

“I think going into school I may have been a little too early, maybe I could have went back to juniors for another year,” Oesterle said. “But I think playing under him really helped speed up my life, kind of maturity, my game on the ice. I think he kind of really treated us like professionals there, so you had to learn quickly. If you didn’t, you’re pretty much going to be out of the university.

“He expects a lot. I think in the time in college it might be a little too much at the time. But looking back on it, I think he expected what every professional coach expects – come in and work hard and do your job.”

Oesterle did that, and he took massive steps over three years at Western Michigan.

“I think what’s happened with him right now is not surprising to anyone who knows him and followed his career at Western,” Murray said. “Every day we try to get better. He’s the guy to really exemplify it, not just hockey, but the way he went with his academics. He came here to be honest as an average student. At the end of the third year, he was a 4.0 student and had an NHL contract.

“I think he’s a tremendous skater and he’s got great vision for the game and he has a deceptive shot. Those are all things he just continued to improve. The coaches would like to take credit for that, but that’s due to Jordan Oesterle and the type of person he is. His initial conditioning test his freshman year was near the bottom. The second year he was in the top five, third year in the top three. We had some very fit athletes. … Jordan had high expectations for himself. Once he realized how good he could be, he went after it.”

Oesterle benefited from having Murray as his coach, but also from the defensemen ahead of him. Danny DeKeyser, who is now a Red Wings defenseman, was a year older than him. Luke Witkowski, who is also with the Red Wings, and Matt Tennyson, who is the Buffalo Sabres organization, were two years older.

“I was playing with some really good defensemen – DeKeyser, Tennyson, Witkowski,” Oesterle said. “I think playing under those guys I never really got to fully show my talent until my junior year. I think that was good because I got to learn under all three of them and take things from their games and put in mine.”

Oesterle got up to speed quickly and fit in with his talented teammates.

“They were all different players,” Facca said. “They all complemented each other well. Jordan had that ability to play with anybody and could play anywhere in that six as far as the defenseman goes. It was a good D core and he fit in there well and he helped us for sure.”

Oesterle flourished his junior season and got NHL teams interested. He ended up signing with the Edmonton Oilers and spent three seasons with the organization. He appeared in 25 NHL games during that time and was mostly with their AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Oesterle wasn’t always pleased to be in the AHL, but he can also see how that ultimately paid off. He was able to fine-tune his game and build confidence playing at that level. When you see his shot get through traffic and either end up in the net or create something for teammates now, it’s because of what he did with the Condors. He became comfortable playing the right side as a left-handed shot.

“I think it was the last year in the American League, last two years in the American League, just the confidence I had with the puck and trusting my shot,” Oesterle said. “That’s kind of what it was. It was maybe trial and error. I remember my first year in the American League I was deferring a lot and passing. I think the last two years I really got my confidence to shoot the puck and get pucks on net because it helps our forwards, it helps the offense.”

After last season, Oesterle decided it was best to seek his NHL opportunity elsewhere. Twenty teams came calling. He and his agent Brett Peterson trimmed the list to three.

In the end, they decided on the Blackhawks, a team they felt could use him even though they had an abundance of defensemen.

“I think it’s kind of our job to make sure we analyze the depth charts and more importantly it’s knowing our client and where he fits in,” said Peterson, who has known Oesterle since he was 17. “Although they did have a decent amount of numbers, having some pretty intimate knowledge of how they play, who they had in the system, we just felt with his style of play and with his situation if it works it’s going to be a home run. Obviously there’s always a chance it doesn’t work out. We felt pretty confident about him having that opportunity.”

Oesterle got that opportunity, but he had to be patient. He was a healthy scratch in 25 of the Blackhawks’ first 29 games.

Oesterle stayed calm. He didn’t ask Peterson to put any pressure on the Blackhawks or begin second guessing their choice.

“You know what, to be honest with you it might have been more Jordan telling me [to be patient],” Peterson said. “I think we both knew we did our homework. That’s how these situations work sometimes. You have to try to stay with your process. That’s why you do the work in the summertime and identify all those things and be patient. He handled it like a complete professional. Sitting out that amount of time is very hard. It’s almost crazy difficult to come in and just survive, let alone do what he’s done.”

Oesterle got his chance when Cody Franson suffered an injury on Dec. 8. Oesterle was playing beside Duncan Keith on the top pairing the next game and hasn’t relinquished that spot since.

Over the last 15 games, Oesterle has led the Blackhawks in 5-on-5 ice time. He’s had a 55.02 Corsi percentage and a plus-5 goal differential (17-12). Individually, he’s produced three goals and six assists. He’s also been placed on the top power play unit.

“He’s got good play recognition, moves the puck quick, has some quickness to his game,” Quenneville said. “He has an offensive mind, seeing and making plays and he’s got a good shot, too. He finds a way to get that seam, be it slapping it or snapping it, it has some pace to it. He thinks the game offensively and I think his defensive game may be a little underrated.”

Oesterle says he hasn’t done much reflection on where he’s come from in his career or even processed the fact he’s gone from a healthy scratch to being on the Blackhawks’ top pairing. He is staying in the moment and trying not to be content.

What he does find unique is having those current Western Michigan players watching his highlights and knowing who he is.

“It’s definitely kind of different,” Oesterle said. “The last couple years I went back everyone was still kind of gung-ho on Danny and some of the other guys there. Now to kind of be like Danny and an alumni there and being shown as an NHL alumni, it’s kind of a different mindset.”

Scott Powers is the lead hockey writer for The Athletic Chicago. Previously, he covered the Blackhawks and the White Sox for ESPN Chicago. He has also written for the Daily Herald and the Chicago Sun-Times and has been a sportswriter in the Chicagoland area for the past 15 years. Follow Scott on Twitter @byscottpowers.